You are:

Civil service must do more to tackle under-representation and pay gaps

7 March 2016

The civil service must do more to tackle under-representation and pay gaps, the Public and Commercial Services union says in response to figures released today.

The government has admitted to shadow Cabinet Office minister Louise Haigh that in one department, DCLG, responsible for the 'northern powerhouse', 97% of top civil servants are based in London.

This follows the announcement by BIS – a key department tasked with helping businesses and improving skills across the country – that it plans to close its Sheffield office and move 250 jobs to central London.

Separately, equalities minister Nicky Morgan's education department has been found by Labour's Lucy Powell to pay women £3,400 less than men.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "The civil service must do more to look like the country it provides public services to, but moving key functions back to central London means it risks going backwards.

"The gender pay gap in many departments is still shocking but tackling this is made all the more difficult by the fact there are more than 200 separate sets of salary negotiations across the civil service."